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Post by angilasman on Mar 9, 2010 22:41:28 GMT -5
Irony: I'm writing a four page paper on Rashomon for my International Cinema class tomorrow while I could be downstairs at a TV with cable watching Kurosawa movies on TCM!
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Post by afriendlychicken on Mar 23, 2010 21:05:05 GMT -5
Happy Birthday Sensei.
TCM is 16 hours into the Kurosawa marathon. Seven Samurai is on. Enjoying it immensely, except for Robert Osborne. I usually enjoy him, but I wish he would talk about Kurosawa's other actors besides Toshiro Mifune. What about Takashi Shimura? Kamatari Fujiwara? Minoru Chaiki? Bokuzen Hidari? Most of us already know about Toshiro Mifune.
Complaints aside, 8 more great hours to go.
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Post by angilasman on Mar 23, 2010 21:21:01 GMT -5
I've been too busy to watch today, but I recorded the first 9 and a half hours of the marathon: his earliest films I haven't seen!
I think I'll watch Sanshiro Sugata in a moment!
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Post by Chuck on Mar 24, 2010 17:55:11 GMT -5
Rashomon is an incredible film Watched it again last night, and again was blown away by it. Just amazing!
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Post by Mighty Jack on Mar 30, 2010 23:02:56 GMT -5
I’ve already listed my top 11. Here’s the middle section…
The 2nd Tier films 12. Hidden Fortress 13. Kagemusha 14. I Live in Fear: Record of a Living Being 15. Drunken Angel 16. Sanshiro Sugata (haven’t seen in a while, but I remember enjoying it) 17. No Regrets For Our Youth 18. One Wonderful Sunday 19. Madadayo
I didn’t write many notes when I watched the remaining films in my Que, so I’ll just reflect on the memory of these, several months removed,
Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980) Kurosawa’s troubles in Japan continue, Toho wouldn’t back the film until Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas convinced a studio in the States to finance the rights for the US.
This Earthy companion to RAN is Kurosawa’s most historically based drama. He packs in a lot of info, but leaves a lot out. Thankfully because of all the reading I did after watching Seven Samurai, I was familiar with the story and the legends behind it (as well as the liberties Akira took with the facts). Had I not been I might have been lost in places.
There are several nice subtle touches and the ending is haunting. I feel it’s a strong entry in the Filmography.
Rhapsody in August) This wasn’t so hot, it was melodramatic and cloying (sorry, but Richard Geer was too wonderful and always said the right things) and sometimes it felt like a tour video. Obviously Akira needed to get this off his chest; find some closure, but he did it with a stiff hand.
Madadayo His final film is better than the previous one, but it does have problems. Its kind of cookie cutter, as we get scene after scene where…
1. Students praise professor 2. There is a gathering where wise professor says funny wise things 3. Everybody laughs 4. Everyone praises professor.
The professor is too perfect. Oh he has his moments of upset (the bits with the lost cat) but he never is an a-hole, he always finds the right things to say, he doesn’t snip at his wife… he’s always pleasant - and that’s pretty unrealistic and keeps me from getting engaged with this guy as a fully formed, warts and all, human being. Still, it was a quiet, likable, film. I enjoyed my visit with this perfectly nice man.
I did find something I wrote for the Idiot – and folded that in with his other Russian adaptation…
The Idiot and The Lower Depths It was inevitable that Kurosawa would eventually tackle Russian lit, as it was such a beloved influence throughout his life. Fydor Dostoevsky and Maxim Gorky are the 2 he films, both are rather stagy, almost 50s TV teleplay in style. Neither was a complete success though Akira does better by Gorky.
The problem with the Idiot is that the studio cut over an hour of footage (which is still missing), and the director tries to fill in the gaps with distracting and lengthy script that scrolls across the screen. That makes the early part of this movie a tough row to hoe because just as I’m getting into the flow, the movie stops, and I have to read what we would have seen.
The other problem is that Kurosawa is too much in love with the source material. He packs in as much as he can and this literalness drags the film down.
It’s also far, far too overwrought and the score is soapy to no end. In truth sometimes it did feel as if I were watching a corny soap opera. That element was present in the novel, but it wasn’t overwhelmingly so.
Kurosawa does manage to make magic. The scene at the party with Nasu surrounded by her suitors is a great bit of work. Despite some of the soap, in this sequence Dostoevsky’s powerful writing blast through to the fore and Kurosawa’s camerawork and editing is as deft as anything he’s ever done. It’s too bad this marriage of masters couldn’t have yielded results like this throughout.
In closing: The novel’s philosophical principal addresses the Saintly innocent torn asunder by a cynical, harsh world. Akira has shown his mastery of such subjects, but he also shows a reckless abandon in trying to say or do too much. He struck a perfect balance between exposition and subtlety with Ikiru - with the Idiot he is unable to reign himself in. I can’t imagine how the 260+ minute cut was like, maybe it flowed better, but maybe it was an unwieldy, stumbling giant. Perhaps one day we’ll find out.
The Lower Depths works better because it doesn’t try to cram everything in. Kurosawa puts in his own interpretations (ala the humor) – It’s set in a slum with an impressive ensemble cast. Bokuzen Hidari, so memorable in Seven Samurai, is –if it’s possible- even better here. Despite Akira’s claim that this is a comedy, it’s as black a comedy as you’ll ever see. These broken down people seem to only feel good about themselves when they are tearing down their fellow house mates.
It is a little static, stagy, but the script is strong. Sometimes it goes waaaay overboard on the emotion – Kurosawa was a man of extremes, but he pushes it too far in some places. The screaming and overwrought performances in some scenes keep this from perfection, but it’s solid Kurosawa all told.
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Post by PimPamPet on Mar 31, 2010 4:22:36 GMT -5
Just getting into this man's work. I've only seen Seven Samurai so far (which I loved) but I'll be watching Ran soon (a friend recommended it to me). Thanks for the reviews, I'll be reading them in closer detail soon.
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Post by afriendlychicken on Mar 31, 2010 5:10:36 GMT -5
I just finished watching Ran and noticed something slightly different. During the closing credits, the music stopped half way through and the rest of it rolled in silence. On all the versions I've ever seen, the music always played to the ends of the credits. Checked the Criterion disc and the version they have played the music to the end. I wonder if TCM's version was from England?
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Post by Mighty Jack on Apr 1, 2010 0:32:28 GMT -5
And the final third of my list…
From decent to fair to weak 20. The Bad Sleep Well 21. The Lower Depths 22. Dreams 23. Scandal 24. Rhapsody in August 25. The Quiet Duel 26. The Idiot 27. Dod’es Ka-dan
I haven’t seen the “Men Who Tread on the Tigers Tail” in ages, nor have I ever seen Sanshiro Sugata 2 or Most Beautiful. I believe that’s all that I left off?
This was the last review I had stored on Word…
Dreams (1990) After the grandeur of Ran, Kurosawa chose to work on intimate, personal themes. The 8 vignettes in “Dreams” are literally inspired by the director’s own dreams. They are also steeped heavily in Japanese folklore, tradition and history. Therefore western viewers unfamiliar with such things are not likely going to ‘get’ everything they see.
It is an art house film of degrees. It is often quiet and introspective. On the other it is nightmarish and explosive. It is at it’s best when it’s poetic and painterly. It stumbles when it abandons imagery and visual storytelling and becomes too didactic and obvious in its sermons. The chapters…
Sunshine through the Rain Opens the piece, it’s a short bit about a boy who spies on a foxes wedding procession. He is caught and the fox give his mother a dagger, with which he is supposed to kill himself. The little boy then sets off to find the foxes to beg for forgiveness. It ends with him standing in a field under rainbow.
I have no idea what any of this means but it is pretty. The piece moves at a leisurely pace and there are scenes where it’s like sitting in a gallery looking at a spectacular painting, awash in color. Kurosawa’s framing and precise direction is on display, the piece moves like a ballet and sets the tone for the remaining film.
A Peach Orchard In the films of Hayao Miyazaki, nature is unpredictable and imposing. It can seem to be your comrade at one moment and capriciously turn on you the next. It’s neither good nor evil, it simply is. There are no happy fuzzy Disney talking bunnies in a Miyazaki film - and I wonder if this reflects the Japanese mindset, because in his first 2 stories Kurosawa is tapping into that same theme. Here, the spirits that live within the peach trees (manifesting themselves as his sisters dolls) confront a boy, angry that his parent cut down the tree’s too early. This one is okay, though the child actor is too stuff and doesn’t convey emotion well.
The Blizzard Man vs nature once more as a group of men brave sub zero temperatures and swirling snows. Tiring, they rest and one is visited by a woman in white who tries to get him to sleep. Interesting though very slow.
The Tunnel A soldier enters a tunnel and confronts the dead. I didn’t care for this one; I found it trite, static, long-winded with some unintended laughs (the blue faces). I know the war had a deep effect on Kurosawa and Japan but he is unable to convey the tragedy, guilt and horror of war in a profound manner. It felt ‘art-student’ obvious and forced.
The Crows Man enters Van Gough’s painting, meets the artist himself (played by Martin Scorsese). This is interesting, there’s a charm and poetry to it. As with most of the tales it doesn’t reveal a lot and in truth, it sometimes feels like Akira’s trying too hard… a successful art film doesn’t stand up and announce “look at me, aren’t I arty?” it just comes by this personality naturally.
Mount Fuji in Red A weak entry because it feels like Kurosawa giving a sermon. In our post 9-11 world it’s easy to forget that nuclear and atomic power was greatly feared. Disasters (like the one at Chernobyl) only intensified that fear. In Japan this was especially true, Kurosawa and his associates himself spoke about it, made movies about it (“Record of a Living Being”) so I understand the directors need to address this fear. But too often the didactic nature of the piece comes off clumsy. With people simply telling us it’s bad and unfair and whatnot. The most effective scene doesn’t come from the talk, but from a guy (representing the young, lanky Kurosawa) removing his coat to ward away a deadly cloud, only to be engulfed in it. He continues to wave his arms about and that hopeless, empty gesture says more than a 1,000 words ever could.
The Weeping Demon More speeches, only worse: This continues on with the theme set with Fuji, this time nuclear war leaves the world a wasteland, populated with giant dandelions. Kind of goofy and overstated. Akira might as well have done his once desired Godzilla flick
The Village in the Watermills Picture postcard pretty, I guess one could argue that Kurosawa is sermonizing again, preaching how much better it is to go green (long before that became a buzz word), but he does so in such a pleasant manner that I don’t mind it as much here. Plus it’s a nice way to go out, life affirming, positive… at his core Kurosawa believed that life was good and it is said he often longed for a simple, country life.
(I’ll confess to an MST3K moment - during the funeral march, that song? I couldn’t help but shout out “TUSK!”)
All told this is a mixed bag. Watermills, Sunshine and Blizzard were the best. Demon, Fuji and the Tunnel the weaker. With the other 2 sitting somewhere in the middle. Warner Brothers has the rights so its pretty bare bones release.
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Post by afriendlychicken on Apr 1, 2010 1:37:53 GMT -5
I actually liked The Tunnel sequence, although I totally agree with you on the rest. I just found a site, which I cant link too(http://film.vtheatre.net/doc/dreams.html), which mentions that The Tunnel was actually directed by an uncredited Ishiro Honda. I didn't know that.
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Post by Justin T on Apr 12, 2010 11:31:58 GMT -5
Last Saturday night I wasn't in the mood for MST3K so I decided it was time to watch some more Kurosawa so I popped in my Criterion DVD of Yojimbo.
Wow, I wish I had watched this one sooner. What an amazing film. I loved the story, and was surprised by all the humor which worked so well. Mifune is just awesome as Sanjuro. That scene in the beginning when he sees the dog carrying around a severed hand really got my attention. I loved the old man who ran the resturant, he had alot of great lines and became a good ally and friend to Sanjuro. The way he played both sides off each other was just so well done. Every time I watch one of his movies for the first time, I am just amazed by Kurosawa's talent.
Awesome movie, easily one of my all time favorites now. Now i'm looking foward to finding the time to watch the sequel, Sanjuro.
I totally forgot about Kurosawa month on TCM, I was hoping to watch Rashomon (another of his classics I haven't seen yet). Thankfully I still have a few more of his movies on DVD that I haven't watched yet.
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Post by The Mad Plumber on Jan 27, 2011 19:57:45 GMT -5
My sister showed me NetFlix, so now I've gotten the opportunity to watch Seven Samurai.
It was a good experience and one of the better classic films I've experienced. Toshira Mifune really plays a character that's larger than life, and it makes the ending all that more tragic. In the future, I need to check out some more titles from Akira Kurosawa.
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Post by Justin T on Jul 24, 2011 23:12:48 GMT -5
After a long hiatus, I'm finally getting back to watching some Kurosawa films again. In the last few months I picked up the Criterion Collection DVD's of Stray Dog, Rashomon and High and Low. Today I watched Stray Dog.
The idea of Kurosawa doing a cop/film noir movie really appealed to me, but I came away loving this movie more than I expected. This one needs to be more apprecaited I think. I'm going to go more in depth in the I Just Finished Watching Thread.
So of the Kurosawa movies I own on DVD I have watched: Seven Samurai Stray Dog Throne of Blood The Hidden Fortress Yojimbo Kagemusha
The ones I own that I have left to watch are: Rashomon Sanjuro High and Low Ran
Once i'm done with those, I dont know which of his movies I should try next. I think Ikiru is the most likely candidate right now. Once I've watched a couple more I can give my own Top 10 Favorite Kurosawa list.
I am going to go in release order, so up next is Rashomon. I'm really looking foward to it.
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